In order to manage an article in a distribution stage of the article manufactured by a maker, shipped to an intermediate distribution trader such as a wholesaler and thereafter and thereafter delivered a retail store, there is made a proposal of affixing an RFID tag to the article (for example, Patent Literature 1).
In this background technique, a tag reader reads an RFID stored in the RFID tag affixed to the article on important positions in the distribution stage such as at the time of shipment from the maker, at the time of delivery to the intermediate distribution trader and at the time of delivery to the retail store, checks whether or not this RFID is a normally registered proper one and monitors whether or not the article is correctly distributed.
Further, there is proposed a method of performing automatic settlement by, when a purchaser packs articles provided with RFID tags purchased in a retail store such as a department store and passes through a passage gate of the retail store with the bag, for example, making communication between a tag reader provided on the passage gate and the RFID tags affixed to the purchased articles, automatically inferring the prices of the respective articles on the basis of the RFIDs transmitted from the RFID tags, calculating the total sum thereof and using a credit card or the like possessed by the purchaser (for example, refer to Patent Literature 2).
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-104617.
Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 5-158957.